Month: April 2020

Sakura

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As we enter week X of an indefinite number, I won’t talk about COVID, although there will be something at the end, either a link or copied article. A shout out first,to my friends Matthias and Isabelle and their daughter Eva, in this country on appointment. Stay safe.

As I write I am drinking Sakura green tea, it is mild, gentle with almost a cream soda sort of flavour, it perfectly reflects the delicate essence of Japan. Sakura being cherry blossom and at this time of year people would be partaking in Hanami, that is drinking under the cherry blossom. It is a centuries old tradition, that was once the privilege of royalty, then spread through the samurai order to the masses. This year, there are no parties under the cherry trees across Japan, but the tradition will not die and will be enjoyed again next year.

Why the fascination with Sakura, well all will be obvious in a moment.

I was challenged, last week, (I hear you giggle muttering he has always been challenged) to enter into the spirit of the recreating of famous paintings with everyday items laying around the house. Not one that I could refuse having opened the vast trunks that are my dressing up boxes.

My first attempt was Waterhouse’s Lady of Shallot

It got good mentions for the water lilies. Flushed with success we attempted the Great Wave too early, old snapping bamboo canes and a breeze defeated us, but we will return to this later. For comparison we show the first attempt here.

A lot of work required, but we will get there.

Finally Three men in a boat – adjusted for Social Distancing

So you can see lots of fun and we will strive to do better. Jun wisely opts to be behind the lens rather than in front.

Some links to help you through these dark times:

Washing your hands guidance from Miku Kobato the leader of rock band Band Maid
Thinking of repo rating someone’s Coronavirus behaviour to the police? Think again.
At the bottom of the page an article from the New Statesman, well I promised I would find one for you. This is on the Coronavirus and the language of war.
To close as I opened, Sakura. This morning’s message from our daughter in China was asking what I would be today in pictures. Having chosen Sakura as the theme it was easy, queue the samurai outfit and branches of cherry blossom 🌸 .
Be safe,
As always
Geoffrey
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Coronavirus and the language of war

We are using the language of conflict to talk about the current pandemic. There are many parallels, but the comparison is not exact.

Darwin would have something to say about that

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Good evening, tonight I shall try and link the bible with science and still be here in the morning. It will I hope show where we are heading as a species.
We are in the strangest of times, half the world is approaching our current situation scientifically with expert lead responses, balanced against economies and lives. A great chunk of the world is allowing churches to meet, despite cancelling great public events and giving air time to ‘pastors’ to exorcise the demon that is this pandemic.
If you have seen or read the brilliant Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, you will recall as the four horsemen gather to ride to Armageddon; dear old Pestilence has taken early retirement and been replaced by Pollution. Well Agnes Nutter didn’t see this one coming, Pestilence is in the driving seat and Pollution has been relegated to the second division. Carbon emissions are down, I hope like me you are getting four weeks to a gallon of petrol or diesel. From space we can observe the clouds of pollution dissipating. A horrible thought for some of you……perhaps Extinction Rebellion are right!
To set the scene, earliest writing about 3200BC, earliest script 2600BC; earliest printing China 220 AD and it didn’t reach Europe until the fifteenth century. So if the world was created in 4004BC everything was by word of mouth until 2600BC and then it got a little embellished in the transcription.
So those biblical plagues and events were passed on by storytellers and one day someone had the patience to write it all down. Of course at the same time science was being born as others took note of what happened around them. And so we progressed up until one of my favourite, favourite people looked around him and laid it all bare. Charles Darwin. (I am still enthralled when I visit his house near to where we lived in Orpington in Kent)

I hope the pictures below will, using some biblical, some scientific basis, give you an understanding where we as a species are heading. Darwin did have something to say…

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” – Charles Darwin

Sodom and Gomorrah circa 3750 BC

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The plagues of Egypt circa 3200 BC

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Great Plague London 1660s

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Gulf War 1991
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SARS 2007
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COVID 19 2020
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I think we peaked as a civilisation around 2000!
If you are looking to fill time, learn……
STAY IN STAY SAFE SAVE LIVES
as always
Geoffrey

The best of times, the worst of times.

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Good evening, I am sure most of you recognise my subject line from the open of a Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. It probably is an apt quotation for our times….what isn’t quoted in the next two lines:  “it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity” and those sound far more suitable to our times.
I read a post from a lady, whose parents had scrimped and save for her to qualify as a Doctor and then go on to be a Masters in Infectious Diseases, wistfully complaining that her opinion counted for naught on FaceBook against that of Chantelle from the poodle parlour who now held greater sway that a PhD Virologist. She is right, we see it here, “this is the most important message I have ever sent, I will show you how to make a cloth face mask” for god’s sake (not for humanists) follow the advice and stay in.
In these trying times, a shout out for my neighbours two boys, excellent young men who spent last night camping in the back garden. Change your routines, it keeps you fresh. Jun has been eyeing me suspiciously all day as I air the sleeping bags. I have done camping with the kidults, they mutinied one year in Rothbury during an Easter camp, when the temperature suddenly dropped overnight to about -5 and we woke in our thermal sleeping bags to discover that the tent was now a solid structure, breaking camp was a reality that Easter. Phoebe never camped again apart from a couple of excursions to the Reading Festival and after returning it, the tent despite being aired for months still smells like a hippopotamus wallow.
I digress, with new laws our Police can stop you without the stigma that has been associated with ‘stop and search’ in the Metropolitan Police Area. They can now judge if your journey is necessary, they are already well backed up by curtain twitchers here in Somerset and social media is now full of links to grass up your neighbour for going out again. I am not criticising our boys and girls in blue, I would not want their job at the moment and our Chief Constable is preaching caution and common sense; those who abuse the rules need to be held to account, but I cite it as an example how the freedoms so hard won in this country can be easily taken away. I hope that the police also advise those who are grassing up Mr Jones from number 3, who went out twice today; that they might not be around when this is all over and the neighbours come with bricks and hair clippers. You can see how easily this will degenerate.
The weather has been good, as I have no reason to go out, other than to post a letter to my Aunt I haven’t. I stay at home, with neighbours, we are coming up with cunning plans to buy food from local suppliers and by sharing we reach the minimum spend for delivery without the risk of it being in the recycling at the weekend. It is ‘the best of times’.
For those fans of my dressing up box, today has been special.
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For my long suffering neighbours, this may be ‘the worst of times’ as I take up bass guitar. The dark glasses are so I am not recognised by Avon and Somerset, as they tazer Rastafarian’s.
Well they said make the most of all this time and learn something. I am.
Last night our daughter, Chenxi, asked if we were damp in Somerset as she heard England was wet. Not at all I replied sending a picture after my evening walk around the garden.
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Please do take care, the next three weeks will be crucial, avoid any unnecessary travel. Staying in can and will save lives.
I close with an article from the Spectator by Rod Liddle. Freedoms are something we should not give away too readily. I will find something pithy from the New Statesman. Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet should throw up something! As I would hate to be viewed as partisan.

As always

Geoffrey

History repeats itself

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Good evening, on what has been a glorious sunny day, although a little chilly here in Somerset.
We have made the most of the day. Starting with the five day shoppex, nearly all veg and fruit and I still managed to not get the one vegetable that Jun required. Impressed that Tesco, well organised with arrows on the floor, although numerous people, despite being briefed at the entrance manage to come at you the wrong way in an aisle, but that is life. Topped our neighbour Verd up with cabbage and Brussel Sprouts so he will be happy for a while……I think that is the right word.
As you know I research before saying anything and this afternoon I wondered what Samuel Pepys had to say, well quite a lot really. In the 1660s, after the restoration of the monarchy we had a bloody war with Europe (second Dutch War 1665) which was accompanied by the arrival of the Plague in London in the spring of the same year. The death toll was high, but an interesting observation from SP was the official estimates of mortality were low as it did not include the likes of Quakers for whom no bell was rung! The crucial statement comes in October when as the weather had turned colder less people were dying.
So you can see the parallels with today, bloody European War, high mortality rates, but turned around when it got colder, coz people stopped moving about. Stay in – save lives. So history repeats itself.
Supper tonight was Chairman Mao Red Pork, brilliantly produced by Jun, melt in your mouth pork. I shall have to work hard to match it tomorrow.
Fans of the dressing up box are in for a treat…..
Today we went on safari…as you do….Eat your heart out Longleat.
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Jun was not amused when I suddenly bounced into the living room and went Rrrroarr
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Serious bit. There is a Guy’s and St Thomas’s survey tool being used to track the spread of Coronavirus. Once you have filled in all your details there is a daily check on whether you have symptoms or have been tested. The maps on their website are illuminating.

https://covid.joinzoe.com/

Some culture

Geisha performing Miyako odori, so you can guess what is in the pipeline.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jSbRaQsoVy0

So wherever you are, STAY IN STAY SAFE SAVE LIVES
as always
Geoffrey and Jun (still quaking behind the sofa)

The Shoes of the Fisherman

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Good evening, on what is the end of week what ever in the long list of whatever’s that we are making for ourselves at the moment.

There is a certain safety in routine, it gives you a fixed point to work from, even in the height of conflict the underlying routines continue. In the Second World War when my father was serving in destroyers the paymaster used to dress for dinner each night. During the Falklands campaign we used to meet for a sherry before what ever meal it was at 7 pm. As we operated in Zulu time (GMT) and the Falklands is several hours behind us in time (several decades if you have been there) you can understand the confusion our body clocks were suffering.

We are settling into a gentle routine, that involves all the usual domestic chores and then the sudden added excitement of seeing how flat and small a parcel you can make with the cardboard before the recycling team arrive on Friday morning. The joy then becomes breaking the routine. We are limiting our excursions in line with the recommendations, Jun staying in more than I, since I do the weekly shopping run, although we have discovered it works better at five days for fresh fruit and veg. So having shopped on Tuesday, which was also my exercise trip, two sort of non days were rewarded with sun, light westerly winds and an urge to be out there. So we did a milk run to the machine on the farm, followed by a slight detour to a quiet lane where the wild garlic grows. Jun loves it, but it has a short season between pickable and flowering usually about three weeks, so today was our second forage. So whatever we may die from, it won’t be vampires for the next few days. The odour oozes from your body like the scent of vodka from a Russian alcoholic, it just does not go away.

So the end of week two, I think of semi isolation. In admiration for all those who are working to keep things going. We applauded the NHS last night, which allowed distant conversations with neighbours. Today it was the turn of the recycling crews who got my thanks.

I hear you ask, what did you do with garlic, well tonight’s delight was Thai sweet chilli scallops with stir fried Chinese cabbage and garlic. The sweet chilli sauce was excellent a recipe from Nigel Slater, stolen from Peter Gordon. The kitchen was wonderfully aromatic. We aren’t!

For that other world we live in, rather like – which window shall we look through today, the dressing up box said Pope! So I am am writing this epistle to you in ecclesiastical white on the sofa in the living room. Over the weekend we will empty both boxes (trunks) and set apparel to where we are travelling, but for tonight after scallops I am in the shoes of the fisherman.

What ever you do, do stay safe.

As always

Geoffrey

Sweet chilli scallops with stir fried wild garlic and veg

From our evening walk.

That went well didn’t it?

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Good evening, as we continue our voyage of discovery. It becomes more like a ship deployment each day as you are unable to escape each other. In real terms there are conflicting stories of hope and dismay, it is of course dependent in which camp you wish to sit.

I, for one, would be happy for a government of national unity. It would hold all our elected members accountable and might stop the, “I spoke to a Doctor in my constituency” drivel that the BBC seems to be gorging on. It was interesting to see a Professor from Oxford giving the response that the presenter didn’t want today, I don’t want to add to the alarm, I don’t want to cause confusion, which unfortunately was not what the BBC was wanting and expecting. Enough.
All is well here in Somerset, a tadge cool, but otherwise okay. I need warm dry weather as I have to do work in the garage as we redistribute items from the house. Jun is happy, her 43 inch TV was delivered today, I have to watch it from bath, not in the bath, but Bath 17 miles away. I just need to activate the connection that allows the link to iPads and Jun will be satisfied. We seem to have everything else she wants for, so happy all round.
Yesterday was our weekly shoppex and I managed, despite a comprehensive list to forget something, social conscience forbids me going out to get it until next week. It was encouraging to see that our local Tesco had sensible plans in place for shoppers and despite the disappearance of some lines a good range of essentials. They still seem keen to offload the glut of plants leftover from Mother’s Day.
Through the Suez Canal and that long haul down the Red Sea and up the coast of Oman. For centuries a place of danger, pirates and ne’er do wells. (I will come back to pirates in a later blog). We are now into the routine of routine meals alternating with something exotic. Tonight’s delight came from my traditional Arab Cookbook. ‘Take a 25kg lamb, well okay, but I need to get the calculator for the division of spices as I have half a kilo. Anyway end result a satisfying meal of rice, lamb and buttered Naan breads as a substitute for the real thing. It filled the vacuum, reached the spot or whatever expression you wish to use. What is enjoyable is that most of the recipes are simple, by necessity in some cases. Anyway the house was filled with a mixture of lamb odour and sweet spice as it boiled away on the hob for a couple of hours this afternoon.
Back in the real world, I have made a jump from enthusiastic volunteer to committee member with our local volunteer group, I am approaching it with that sanguine air of Sergeant Wilson in Dads Army, “would you awfully mind if I asked you to…….”
The Chief Executive has written to all County Council Staff asking if we would be happy to work in emergency care homes being set up within the county, it brings the reality of the situation home to you.
So as you can see that went well didn’t it?
Anyway a couple of photographs as I went into the dressing up box.
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For those of you with only black and white

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Finally, having discover my treasure trove of shemaghs I have lost the ones with tassels.

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A shout out to Stephen our journalist neighbour who is sitting this out in the Plague Pit that is South London. Stay safe and wash your hands!

Today’s useful link is to Travel Zoo and lots of places you can virtually visit, as we do daily.
As always, stay safe and well

Geoffrey

Daily Orders

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Good evening, well we have had Captain’s rounds and are sitting waiting for our Greek Cypriot supper to cook. Pastito if you ask.

For so many years of my life in the Royal Navy, my daily routine was governed by a marvellous document, produced by the Routines Office Writer on a Gestetner, typed onto a blank foil and then produced in hundreds (on the carrier). It contains abbreviations that a code breaker at GCHQ would find difficult to fathom. A bottle of something if someone comes up with a translation.

DAILY ORDERS
Routine Office
HMS ARMAGEDDON

29 March 2020                                                                            at sea

Sunrise 0624/Sunset 2108
Sunday Anchor/Sea Routine                                                       Duty watch 1 Port
OOD Lt Ringbolt
DPO PO Cook Typhoid

Routine
0700          Call the Duty Watch
0800          Colours
0805          Scrub the upper deck
0930          Communion Quarterdeck
1100           Call the hands
1100-1300 Brunch
1230           Weigh Anchor/passage/canal transit brief
1330           SSDCUANBCDS3CYHOOTROTDCOTUD
1400           Weigh anchor passage to Port Said
1800           SSDCUANBCDS3CYCASDAHHOOTROTDCOTUD
1830           Anchor Port Said roads, transit preps
2108           Sunset
300030      SSDCUANBCDS3CYCASDAHHOOTROTDCOTUD RM UD sentries close up
0100           Embark Canal Pilot commence transit

Captains Rounds
The Captain was impressed by the high standards achieved, all round, today. It was an excellent effort by the whole ships company. We are better prepared for the tasks that now face us.

Cakes were awarded to Verd Redwood for his determination in continuing to clean his spaces when the upper deck was closed to him.

Best spaces overall, most improved and Captains pet to Jun for her hard work to ensure the continued cleanliness of the whole ship. BZ

Communion
The Chaplain requests whoever replaced his bottle of communion wine with a bottle of Buckfastleigh Tonic Wine to return same to Chapel ASAP.

The Captain Writes
I received a letter in the mail from the Ships sponsor, Lady Thrice-Nightly. She has been touched by the kind letters of support on the passing of her husband in a hunting accident. She singled out the letter from the Stokers Mess offering to lend a hand and send a party to help her and her three daughters, Chastity, Felicia and Virginia in picking fruit and bringing the harvest home. Well done Stokers Mess, please talk with the Master Gunner, who accompanied L T-N to a hunt ball on etiquette and the use of stamina tablets.

Beard growing competition
Entries for the competition are now closed and the Captain looks most likely to win.

Library
The library will be open from 1900 to 1905 for return of books

Naval Stores
Note that the stores will be closed for the next three days for stocktaking

B D Drummond
First Lieutenant

Verd receives his Lemon drizzle cake

Jun receives her prize cake.

Somebody got the hump

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Good evening, another day closer to the end of this awful time. Each day behind all the briefings and counter briefings there is hidden nuggets of hope. Trials started on vaccines today, early days, but a sign of hope. I feel it is slightly more positive than American Evangelists doing their “get thee behind me Satan” on tv.
After a quiet couple of days, we went to Cyprus for supper on Saturday a gentle passage through the Suez Canal casts us into the Orient. At Port Said you can be wearing duffel coats to keep out the cold but as you pop out into the Red Sea at Port Suez it is welcome to the tropics.
We took the opportunity to land Jun to see the Pyramids as we passaged south. The meals will get a bit more exotic as we move east, but they will be tempered with more traditional food as we take passage. Tonight I will turn a fan on in the upstairs hall so we get that feel of air conditioning.
In the real world, I am in slight disbelief that there are so many people abroad now demanding that we bring them back, everyone of them being a potential biological bomb, it should be twenty one days in an old army camp on Dartmoor,  Oooo, actually there is a purpose built place up there already.
Local volunteer groups are activating everywhere, but they don’t really understand how to plan for the long game. I hate to say I am reluctant to put my oar in, as they all mean well. Not even our emergency services really understand long drawn out operations, which is purely a military skill. So we will people frustrated that they are never called, while others are worked into the ground. I may sit down and draft something tonight / tomorrow which some of you might receive for comment. If the government is saying six months that is a long time.
So back to the ‘other world’ a couple of pictures. Some years ago dear Barbara at work gave me a cookery book, it is now coming into its own. I shall give you a few recipes over the coming weeks.
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I got a picture of Jun with the Pyramids as a backdrop. There weren’t any camels so she got the hump!
As always, wishing you all good health
Geoffrey and Jun